Dental Jobs?

ok,so i havent completely made up my mind, i pretty much would like to have any job in the Dental Fields area.





who generally gets payed more?





-Dentists?


-Orthodontists?


-Oral/Maxillofacial Surgeons?


-Cosmetic Dentists?


-or any other type of job in the Dental Fields I've missed that is running my own practice like the ones i listed above?





i dont know yet,i think i want to be a Orthodontist, but i want a job where i get a lot more money from it in the Dental Jobs, but i dont want too much schooling! it already takes about 8-9 years of college to be an Orthodontist, so a Dental Job that would get payed more but require less or the same amount of schooling time, I live along the pacific coast in Southern California and want to stay living here while i have a career. so i wanna make a lot of money. since everything, including homes are very indeed expensive nowadays here.

Dental Jobs?
You've gotten some pretty good advice from the other posters. Remember that dental school is very expensive--tuition is about 10X what it was when I went to school in the 1970's. Then, if you're going to open up your own practice, it can cost a few hundred thousand to build an office, even if there's no real estate involved. So you can be in an enormous financial hole before you see your first patient.


The particular practice setting and dynamics of your particular dental practice will help determine income. Location and clientele are important, and obviously your competence level. But personality and service are probably the most important of all. While it's true that cosmetic dentistry is not covered by insurance and therefore insurance companies cannot influence fees, your market will. Also, any dentist can (and most do) cosmetic dentistry--it is NOT a specialty (though there are plenty of continuing ed courses out there).


Since it appears you are at the very beginning of the process, why not try to find out what you can about general dentistry. There is plenty of time to decide whether or not to specialize later on.





Good luck,


Steve Bornfeld, DDS
Reply:Which would you enjoy more? The driving factor should NOT be money. If you "don't want too much schooling", then why do you want to be a dentist? Becoming one is harder than you imagine. If you're just in it for the money, then I feel bad for your future patients.





Pick something you want to do because you like it...not just because you'll make a lot of money.
Reply:Based on my limited knowledge I would say Cosmetic Dentist. They help to reshape and contour the face but they don't rely strictly on referrals like the other specialties you listed. One of my relatives lives on the east coast. He is a Cosmetic Dentist and he's only been working for about 5 or 6 years and already had purchased a massive 22 foot Grady White fishing boat, a drop dead gorgeous house on the water, and a $80,000 Porsche.





The way it works in my area the dentists usually have one "go-to" dentist that they will use for Ortho. For my boss we refer all our pts to Dr Thodus. That's it. If you were in my area you wouldn't get any of our business because we already have an established relationship with Dr Thodus. In the other office I worked in we used Dr Wong. If you want to specialize in Ortho you better be damn good at relationships because it's necessary for survival.





Btw - if your decision is based on money you're doing it for the wrong reason. All the above dental fields that you listed above are very very good paying jobs. I would take any of the above, but if you wanted the most bang for the buck, cosmetic would be the way to go - especially in SoCal.